AUSTIN — Battleground Texas in the Democratic presidential primary is firming up, with Hillary Rodham Clinton in control of South Texas and Barack Obama apparently owning Houston and Dallas, a new tracking poll shows.

Statewide, Obama holds a lead, but pollster John Zogby said the race is too close to call, especially with heavy turnout in early voting. Zogby said Obama is leading Clinton among young voters, men, blacks and holds almost 60 percent support in Houston and Dallas.

Primary election day is Tuesday, and Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson said he expects a record turnout.

Democratic demographer Leland Beatty of Austin said 65 percent of the early voting turnout in Houston through Thursday included people who had not cast a ballot in the past three Democratic primaries. At least a quarter of the turnout is black, he said.

And 11,213 — 8.2 percent — were people who previously had voted in the Republican primary, he said.

The new voters would seem to favor Obama, Beatty said, but 69 percent of the early vote was cast by people older age 40 and 41 percent of the votes were from older women. Obama's appeal has been strongest with people younger than 40.

On Saturday, Clinton continued to try to create voter doubts about Obama as she campaigned in Dallas and Fort Worth. She slammed him on national security, saying that "his entire campaign is based on one speech he gave at an anti-war rally in 2002."

Obama, in a telephone interview with the Houston Chronicle from Rhode Island, said Clinton's attack is the same lack-of-experience tactic she has used against him unsuccessfully in one primary after another.

"Senator Clinton has been trying to peddle that notion for over a year now," Obama said. "The American people aren't buying it."

Obama said he has 20 years of experience in helping U.S. families get health care, and he has a track record of working against nuclear proliferation.

"What she's saying is just factually incorrect and designed to be sarcastic and try to diminish my record," Obama said. "She should be more focused on trying to sell hers, and ... part of that record is her support for a war that shouldn't have been authorized."

Obama was referring to Clinton's U.S. Senate vote to authorize President Bush to use force if former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein refused to allow United Nations inspectors into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction.

Obama was a state legislator when he spoke out against going to war when Saddam refused to allow the inspectors in. Obama later was elected to the Senate.

The two, who are waging a war for the Democratic presidential nomination as the Tuesday primary looms, have upped their fight over national security after Clinton on Friday began airing an ad saying she's the one who has what it takes to protect America's children when the White House telephone rings at 3 a.m. with an international crisis.

Clinton, at a rally at the Fort Worth Stockyards, told a crowd of thousands, "This is a wartime election. National security is always the most important job of our president."

Talking to reporters before the rally, Clinton was sharp.

"His entire campaign is based on one speech he gave at an anti-war rally in 2002, and I give him credit for making the speech, but the speech was not followed up with action, which is part of the pattern we have seen repeatedly, a lot of talk, little action," she said.

'It's very, very close'

Clinton gained some ground in the Houston Chronicle, Reuters,
C-Span
tracking poll on Friday, but the results on Saturday showed her leveling out while Obama had regained ground that he lost.

In Saturday's tracking poll, Obama had 46.7 percent support to Clinton's 43.2 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points, according to the survey by Zogby International.

Obama outpolls Clinton in every age group except those over 65. On Saturday, she had tied Obama with people in the 50-64 age group.

People who identify themselves as Democrats are about evenly split between the candidates, but people who describe themselves as independent favored Obama by at least 13 percentage points.

The candidates were in a statistical tie among women, with Clinton slightly ahead, but Obama held about a five-point lead among men.

Clinton has held a lead among white voters of about 7 percentage points and a lead of at least 20 percentage points over Obama among Hispanics. But more than 75 percent of the blacks surveyed supported Obama.

Clinton had more than 60 percent support in traditionally Hispanic South Texas.

Obama in his interview rejected the idea that her lead may be the result of racially polarized voting by Hispanics.

"The notion that is being perpetrated, unfortunately I think in the media, that somehow Hispanics won't vote for African-Americans because of this particular race and the fact that Senator Clinton has an advantage due to a long-standing presence on the national scene just doesn't make sense," Obama said.

Obama said he has had good Hispanic support in his past races, and if he is the nominee he will have a record to show Hispanics why he would be better for them as president than any Republican.

The region that might be a swing factor in the Democratic race is East Texas. Obama had an 11-point lead in East Texas in the first poll, but Clinton has now pulled ahead by 7 percentage points. Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, has campaigned in the region for her, and actor Samuel L. Jackson toured the area for Obama.

U.S. Sen. John McCain continued to dominate the Republican presidential race in Texas, leading former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 53.9 percent to 35.9 percent. Huckabee's one area of strength — born-again Christians who support him 49 percent to 42 percent over McCain.

Huckabee in Houston

McCain spent Saturday at his home in Arizona while Huckabee was in College Station talking to outdoors writers. He planned to end the day in Houston at a closed-door dinner with evangelical leaders.

The dinner at the Westin Galleria was sponsored by the conservative group, Vision for America, which is headed by the Rev. Rick Scarborough of Lufkin. Scarborough has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights and activist judges.

Today, Huckabee is expected to attend services at the Grace Community Church on the Gulf Freeway.

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